Scientific thinking changes as new evidence comes to light. One vital new insight is the importance of saving even tiny, isolated remnants of native vegetation. Decades of research on fragmented habitats has shown that small, isolated patches of habitat are often ecologically depauperate — deficient in top predators and specialized old-growth species, and suffering from a wide variety of ecological woes. This research correctly shows the vital importance of protecting Earth’s vanishing wilderness areas. But such studies have also convinced some people that very small, isolated patches of native vegetation are nearly worthless. In many places, these tiny remnants are being bulldozed and razed to the ground. That, it turns out, is dead wrong. Here are three reasons why even small tufts of native vegetation can be critically important in the face of the unrelenting expansion of the “human footprint” in many parts of the world. 1. Rescuing Rare Biodiversity Imagine a forested valley rich with plants, animals and other living things — some of which occur nowhere else on Earth. Then imagine that the valley’s forests are cleared for agriculture, leaving just a football-field-sized patch of the original forest. Because the patch is small and isolated from other forests, we’d be tempted to think it sustains only a few species, and therefore is relatively worthless in ecological terms. But because it’s the only habitat remnant in the valley, the isolated patch might actually retain the last populations of certain species. This was the conclusion of a recent global-scale study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. To save unique biodiversity, highly isolated habitat remnants may actually be incredibly valuable.For example, biologists recently discovered a beautiful rainbow-chameleon lizard — a species completely unknown to science — in a highly isolated 15-hectare (37-acre) patch of forest in northern Madagascar. This is evidently the only place the species still survives. So, we need to rethink habitat isolation. To save unique biodiversity, highly isolated habitat remnants may actually be incredibly valuable. That’s a far different approach to conservation than that propounded by adherents to the famous theory of island … Continue reading Opinion: Why we should save the last tiny scraps of nature